M. Marta Guarna, Ph. D.

Image M. Marta Guarna
Research Scientist

Research and outreach on honey bee health and pollination with BC and AB migratory colonies. Honey bee queen fertility, gut microbiome, infection diseases.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
1 Research Road, Beaverlodge, Alberta

Current research and/or projects

- Microbiome and 'omic tools for assessing honey bee health. AAFC – Genome Canada  collaboration

- NGS of Bees and Pollen for Biosurveillance of Agricultural Pathogens and Invasive Species. AAFC – CFIA collaboration

- Blueberry Pollination and Bee Health. Stakeholder funded

- Honey bee queen health and fertility. Local production of honey bee queens in Canada

Professional activities / interests

- Chair, Research Committee, Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA)

- Supervision and mentoring of Post-doctoral Researcher, Research Assistant and students

Education and awards

 

- PhD, New York University, Biology Department

- Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry

Key publications

  1. Raičević J , Cunningham M, Griffiths JS, Wu L, Pernal, SF, Deckers T, Tran L, Ortega Polo, Zorz J, Clarke K, Newman T, Lansing L, Rott ME, Bilodeau GJ, Bishop C, Jabbari H, Guarna MM (2022) Honey bees as biomonitors of plant pathogens, pesticides, and antimicrobial resistance. EurBee 9 – 9th European Congress of Apidology Proceedings, p. 352, 20-22 September 2022, Belgrade, Serbia. (Poster) https://zenodo.org/record/7239012#.Y4BgMnbMKUk

    2022 - View publication details

  2. Pernal SF, Borba R, Hoover SE, Currie RW, Guarna MM, Giovenazzo P, Zayed A, Foster LJ (2022) Analysis of pathogens associated with winter colony losses in Canada. 47th International Apimondia Congress, pp. 42-43, 24-28 Aug 2022, Istanbul, Turkey.
    https://www.apimondia.org/uploads/7/6/4/3/76436993/47th_apimondia_congres_abstract_book_compressed.pdf

    2022 - View publication details

  3. MacInnis C, Guarna MM, Luong LT, Pernal SF (2022) Three’s a crowd: How honey bees respond to infection with Lotmaria passim and Nosema ceranae. 2022 American Bee Research Conference, 13-14 Jan 2022. (Virtual Meeting) Bee Culture (in press).

    2022 - View publication details

  4. Bixby M, Payne A, Polinsky M, Guarna MM, Rangel J. (2022) The Impacts of Covid-19 on Beekeeping Operations in Canada and the United States. American Bee Journal February 2022 Vol. 162 No. 2

    2022 - View publication details

  5. Vishwakarma S, Mesina L, Lam K, Ryabov M, Lansing L, Chen G, Guarna MM, Ortega Polo R. BeeBiome.info: a portal for increasing the accessibility of bee microbiome data. North America Bee Research Conference – virtual; Jan 13 – 14, 2022.

    2022 - View publication details

  6. Cunningham MM, Tran L, McKee CG, Ortega-Polo R, Newman T, Lansing L, Griffiths JS, Bilodeau GJ, Rott M, Guarna MM. Bee-based environmental biomonitoring of pesticides, pollutants, and pathogens. North America Bee Research Conference. Virtual, Jan 13-14, 2022

    2022 - View publication details

  7. Gladish DW, Rott ME, Guarna MM, Pernal SF, Griffiths JF, Bilodeau GJ (2022) Evaluation of plant-pollinator ecosystem health and rapid detection of plant and bee pathogens by high-throughput sequencing of European honey bee (Apis mellifera). Tri-Society Virtual Conference: Canadian Phytopathological Society, Canadian Society for Horticultural Science, Canadian Society of Agronomy, 2021, 5-9 July 2021 Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology (in press)
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/07060661.2021.2009254?needAccess=true

    2022 - View publication details

  8. Cunningham, M.M., Tran, L., McKee, C.G., Ortega Polo, R., Newman, T., Lansing, L., Griffiths, J.S., Bilodeau, G.J., Rott, M., Marta Guarna, M. (2022). Honey bees as biomonitors of environmental contaminants, pathogens, and climate change, 134 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108457

    2022 - View publication details

  9. Bixby MEF, Polinsky M, Scarlett R, Higo H, Common J, Foster LJ, Zayed A, Hoover SE, Guarna MM. (2021) Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian Beekeeping. Entomology 2021, 69th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, 31 Oct - 03 Nov, Denver, CO, hybrid meeting proceedings

    2021 - View publication details

  10. Tran L, Newman T, Cunningham M M, Lansing L, Gregoris A, Ortega Polo R, Guarna MM (2021) DNA sequencing approaches for gut microbiome analyses of highbush blueberry-pollinating honey bees (Apis mellifera). Entomology 2021, 69th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, 31 Oct - 03 Nov, Denver, CO, hybrid meeting proceedings

    2021 - View publication details

  11. Cunningham M M, Tran L, McKee C, Newman T, Gladish DW, Lofano AK, Bilodeau GJ, Rott M, Guarna MM (2021). Honey bees as environmental biomonitors of pathogens and contaminants. Entomology 2021, 69th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, 31 Oct - 03 Nov, Denver, CO, hybrid meeting proceedings

    2021 - View publication details

  12. Bixby M, Polinsky M, Scarlett R, Higo H, Common J, Hoover S, Foster LJ, Zayed A, Cunningham M, Guarna MM. (2021) Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian Beekeeping: Survey Results and a Profitability Analysis, Journal of Economic Entomology. toab180, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toab180

    2021 - View publication details

  13. Bixby MEF, Polinsky M, Guarna MM. (2021) Impacts of Covid-19 on Canadian Beekeeping in 2020: Part 2, Hivelights Fall 2021, 34(4): 23-24 https://honeycouncil.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Hivelights-Fall-2021.pdf

    2021 - View publication details

  14. Tran, L., Newman, T., Lansing, L., Gregoris, A., Ortega Polo, R., Guarna, M.M. Analysis of sample types and sequencing methods for optimal characterization of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) gut microbiome. Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, 25-30 July 2021 (virtual meeting)

    2021 - View publication details

  15. Bixby MEF, Polinsky M, Guarna MM, Impacts of Covid-19 on Canadian Beekeeping in 2020: Part 1, Hivelights Summer 2021, 34(3): 25-28 https://honeycouncil.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Hivelights-Summer-2021.pdf

    2021 - View publication details

  16. Tran, L., Medici de Mattos, I., Ortega Polo, R., Cunningham, M., Simko, E., Guarna, M.M. Gut microbiome response to protective treatments against Nosema sp. Infection in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) gut microbiome. World Microbe Forum, 20-24 June 2021 (virtual meeting)

    2021 - View publication details

  17. Guarna MM and CAPA members (2020) Research Report on Canadian Apicultural Projects. Prepared for CAPA: Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists. 21 December 2020. 20 pages.

    2020 - View publication details

  18. Gregoris A, Higo H, Wolf Veiga P, Ibrahim A, Common J, Pernal SF, Foster LJ, Bixby M, Guarna MM. (2020) European foulbrood may affect availability of honey bee colonies in pollination-deficient blueberry farms. Entomology 2020, 68th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, virtual meeting. 11-25 November 2020.

    2020 - View publication details

  19. Thebeau J, Wood S, Liebe D, Sobchishin L, Kozii I, Klein C, Medici de Mattos I, Zabrodski M, Roulin M, Debruyne J, Moshynskyy I, Sharafi M, Gerbrandt E, Milbrath M, Guarna MM, Wolf Veiga P, Simko E. (2020) In vitro effects of fungicides on the susceptibility of Honeybee (Apis mellifera) larvae to European foulbrood. Entomology 2020, 68th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, virtual meeting. 11-25 November 2020.

    2020 - View publication details

  20. Bixby, M., Hoover, S.E., McCallum, R., Ibrahim, A., Ovinge, L., Olmstead, S., Pernal, S.F., Zayed, A., Foster, L.J., Guarna, M.M. (2020). Honey Bee Queen Production: Canadian Costing Case Study and Profitability Analysis. Journal of Economic Entomology, [online] 113(4), 1618-1627. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jee/toaa102

    2020 - View publication details

Contact

Research facility

Lacombe Research and Development Centre
6000 C and E Trail
Lacombe, AB T4L 1W1
Canada

Expertise

Agriculture›Agri-Food

Affiliations

- Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia

- Member of BCHPA (BC Honey Producers Association), ESA (Entomology Society of America), CAPA (Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists)

Language

English

Other languages

Spanish